Not only here in Bolivar County but across the Mississippi Delta over the past several weeks, dark clouds of rising smoke have cluttered the horizon in every direction.

The voices of many a concerned citizen ring loudly in boards of aldermen and supervisors meetings in the towns that litter the landscape of the Mississippi Delta, but they are, more often than not, ringing on deaf ears.

“I am concerned. I am concerned for the private properties that surround many of the burning fields, but I am more concerned with the potentially devastating effect that the smoke will likely have on the environment. Only living in the Delta for a few years, I cannot believe that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has not stepped in and put an end to these senseless burnings,” said one citizen at one of these small town Delta meetings.

“There is some legitimate concern there,” said a representative from the Mississippi Forestry Commission. “But the simple truth is that by law we cannot step in until we are asked by the individual county board of supervisors.

Last year, Gov. Haley Barbour, passed a law banning any burns within the boarders of the state of Mississippi.

This was because of the drought affecting much of the state and the fear that these ‘wildfires’ would ultimately burn out of control causing severe damages to adjoining properties.

However, there are some that benefit from these burnings.

Farmers have a tough job. Every year they are fighting the odds — Mother Nature, new machinery, higher fuel prices and lower commodity prices just to name a few.

In their minds, burning fields is a simple, cost effective way of removing crop stubble from the fields that have been harvested in preparation of planting the new crops.

Area farmers have been burning fields for years. Their fathers did it and now they are simply following in the process.

However, this year has been undeniably worse than others of recent memory due to the fact that the county has had more wheat planted this year than in years passed.

The high winds that often torment this area of the U.S. during the spring and early summer months makes the process of burning that much more of a sensitive and dangerous topic.

Again, burn bans are requested by the county board of supervisors before being approved by the Mississippi Forestry Commission.